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July 2018 in Turkish archaeology

Göbekli Tepe is now UNESCO World Heritage Site

The greatest news of the past month was the inscription of Göbekli Tepe onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. Moreover, excavations continued in Sardes, Tieion, and Stratinocea. A stunning discovery was made of the earliest child sacrifice site in the region of southeast Turkey. Unfortunately, vandals damaged historic structures by spray painting them in the ancient city of Side in the Mediterranean region.

Turkish Archaeological News collects the most important, interesting and inspiring news from Turkish excavation sites. Here's the review for July 2018. Have we missed anything? Let us know by using Contact tab!

The Göbekli Tepe Research Team would like to congratulate the State Party of Turkey on the inscription of Göbekli Tepe on the prestigious list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Source: The Tepe Telegrams

Excavation work at a Bronze Age burial site in southeast Turkey has unearthed the graves of several youth, in what archeologists believe may be the earliest child sacrifice site in the region. Source: Daily Sabah

The constructions called "kastel" and "livas" are the water-distribution systems used in the past in Gaziantep province. Kastels were the fountains, and livas was used to describe the waterways. Source: Daily Sabah

Twelve of 15 underground cities will be unearthed and opened to visitors in the Central Anatolian province of Kırşehir, known as the western gate of the Cappadocia region in the Roman era. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

Researchers will start excavation work to completely uncover an underground city located in northeast Turkey's Bayburt province, according to Bayburt Director of Culture and Tourism Bekir Kurtoğlu. Source: Daily Sabah

The ancient city of Sardis in the western province of Manisa, where gold and silver money was printed and used for the first time in history, has attracted interest for its sewage system and thermal system used for heating in shops set up thousands of years ago. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

The Santa ruins archaeological site, located within the boundaries of the Black Sea province of Gümüşhane’s Dumanlı village and dubbed a “hidden city close to the sky,” dates back to the Middle Age. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

An ancient Egyptian mummy with two heads, belonging to a human child and a crocodile, has been photographed for the first time on July 6, after more than a century of its “exile” ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

This year, excavation works in the ancient city of Teion in Filyos in the Black Sea province of Zonfuldak’s Çaycuma district have been photographed from the air after 12 years. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

Austrian archaeologists who had to stop excavations on the ancient city of Ephesus in September 2016 due to a diplomatic row between Turkey and Austria will resume their works once Turkey’s new Culture Minister Mehmet Ersoy gives the go-ahead. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry started the restoration works on Sur-u Sultani, a four-kilometer (2.5-mile)-long section of Istanbul's ancient city walls located near the Topkapı Palace, which served as the residence of Ottoman sultans for four centuries. Source: Daily Sabah

An archeological team has unearthed a 12-room villa with mosaic-covered floors and walls decorated with colorful frescoes and vegetative geometric figures in the ancient city of Tripolis located in Turkey’s Aegean region. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

The 3,000-year-old ancient city of Caunos is on the Temporary List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and offers 2,400 years of rock tombs, a 3,000-seat theater, a basilica, a Turkish Bath, an agora, the Demeter Sacred Temple and 1,300-year-old mosaics. Source: Daily Sabah

An Ottoman-era district full of “hans” (inns) in northwestern Turkey has been attracting local and foreign visitors, especially since the surrounding area was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

Regarded as the hometown of most prominent sculptors from the Roman period, the ancient city of Aphrodisias in western Turkey mesmerizes tourists with its sculptures and structures. Source: Daily Sabah

Remains of what archaeologists believe is from a Byzantine coastal town have been found during the restoration works of Istanbul’s Haydarapaşa railway station, which stands on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

The Letoon, which is located in southwestern of Turkey, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is “an archive containing the memory of the whole Lycian region,” said a university professor. Source: Hürriyet Daily News

Treasure hunters in Turkey have organized under an association, drawing the ire of the archaeology community who warned the move could speed up the plundering of ancient heritage. Source: Hürriyet Daily News